I read two posts recently that frankly, were music to my ears.
Brand for Talent blog published a post called “Is HR the New Marketing?” and Merit Builder blog published “Meet Your New Marketing Campaign”. Both posts talk about the common ground that human resources and marketing share, specifically that employees have the ability to boost your brand or dunk it in the toilet.
Why am I so excited about this? Well, when I first started my company (ITM Group) – ITM stood for Internal Talent Marketing. Yep – an HR Consulting firm with marketing in its name. I did that because I’ve always felt human resources was the internal marketing department of any organization.
After a couple of years, I abandoned the ‘M is for Marketing’ approach because, honestly, people just didn’t get it. The “M” became Management and when I told folks that I help people manage their internal talent…you guessed it, they got it right away.
But, I’m so thrilled to see the convo is shifting. My kudos to pros like Libby Sartain and Lance Haun who are drawing attention to it. This is an important conversation. It’s the one that can change how people view human resources. For everyone talking about providing value, being a business partner and getting seats at tables…this is it. This is the conversation that HR needs to be having.
Let’s get this dialogue started and keep it going strong! You can count me in.
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Ben Eubanks says
What? You didn’t see my post on this? How dare you. 😉 Seriously, I’m all for it. This is just one of the ways that was mentioned in the comments of Trish’s post yesterday that HR can really become a powerhouse. Keep the drums a-beatin’!
(A link to my post, just for posterity) 😀
http://upstarthr.com/2009/09/turning-employees-into-brand-champions/
Bonita says
I love this! My first recruiting role was an HR marketing role (called Recruiting Specialist, but I did not do any traditional recruiting). I worked with my boss to create contact management and center of influence communication programs – yep, in recruiting and almost 10 years ago. I worked for an amazing visionary (Dir of HR) who hated “HR”.
Mike Zambon says
I’m glad to see this topic is starting to gain traction, as I believe it carries a lot of weight. I also recently wrote about the importance of employer/employment brand, which validates the growing need of marketingesque requirements HR is now faced with and must consider. (Check it out: http://blog.yoh.com/2009/09/employment-brand-how-important-is-it.html)
With the evolution of social networking, many reports/studies have show the correlation between an employee’s perception of a company or organization, the means they have to make this perception public knowledge, and the weight and impact this perception carries in the marketplace on the organization in question. With these reports showing a generally negative opinion of employers by employees, this is a matter which HR will need to address sooner than later.
leanneclc says
Yep – I’m from Marketing and I have jumped the fence into the HR/recruiting sphere – because there are so many similarities. HR really needs to think about how they “market” to their audience. Talent.
Right now I feel HR thinks they are somehow superior or in the driver’s seat. But it’s a relationship. Marketers/sales people get that. You need to establish a relationship with talent, before they’ll trust you. Perhaps that’s also why there are so many articles about how HR is dead or failing these days.
hr bartender says
A big thank you to everyone for the comments. I definitely agree that in order for companies to have successful talent strategies, recruiting processes and employee engagement programs, HR needs to develop a marketing mentality.
Now, here’s my question: several bloggers have recently questioned the viability or been pondering the “rebranding” of human resources. Is it possible the rebranding metamorphosis being discussed is really the need for a shift to running HR like a marketing department?
I’d love to hear your thoughts…
Kevin Leete says
Hey Bartender,
I think the “rebranding” meme is one based in a fundamental lack of understanding about technology. HR has never really been known as a bastion of technologically progressive thinking, and with the concept of the profile having developed so far beyond just the “resume” or personnel folder, HR groups are being viewed as behind the times and in need of “rebranding” or a metamorphosis.
I tend to think that its simpler than that – HR needs training. Ironic, as corporate training often falls somewhere in HR, but its true. Companies need to recognize a paradigm change in how their employees and potential employees are communicating, and how it affects established rules, practices, and standards within HR. The farthest most have gone is to include “e-harassment” as part of their Harassment and Discrimination Policy. Training needs to include the basics “what is the internet” and “what does blog stand for”, as well as the more subtle things like sourcing on Linkedin and posting jobs to Twitter and Facebook. Recognizing the need to add text messaging as a part of their talent communication standards. All of these things are important in the grander scheme of things, but most of all, the HR group/company/vendor that can figure out a curriculum for this type of training of internal HR professionals stands to make a lot of money, and will be in business for the foreseeable future.
-Kevin